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When Roy Keane's publishers chose this Thursday -- October 9 -- as the date to release the controversial client's new autobiography, did they not know that they were clashing with a certain Kevin Pietersen?

If there is one person who could trump Keano for headline-making revelations, then it is KP.

Pietersen's first major pre-publication interview appeared in the Daily Telegraph on Monday, prompting just about every national newspaper to clear their pages for the inevitable reaction.

The Times have exclusive extracts to the Keane biography, The Second Half, which is ghosted, interestingly, by the Booker prize-winning Irish novelist Roddy Doyle, and give them due prominence.

Elsewhere, however, he barely gets a look-in as cricket correspondents and chief sports writers get to grips with KP's revelations and the fall-out, which has already reached levels unprecedented in the long history of cricket books.

Keane was helped when a Tesco store in Greater Manchester inadvertently -- or so we are to believe -- put The Second Half on their shelves three days early, enabling the contents quickly to find their way into the media.

But next to Pietersen's version of the events that led to his acrimonious parting of the ways with England's cricket team, there is a danger that none of Keane's revelations, quite a few of which cover old ground anyway, will seem that exciting.

In short, a book that would have sold itself had it appeared on October 9 last year, next year or in any other year, in all probability, will need an extra push.

Ironically, so much has been revealed and so much comment passed in just a few hours that quite a few potential purchasers may conclude, with seemingly little of the juicier content not already in the public domain, that there is not much point in parting with £20 to buy the book.

ITALIAN BACKDROP FOR NEW CRIME NOVEL

Death in the High Cityis a new crime novel set in Bergamo, northern Italy.The novel is the first in a series featuring detective duo Kate Butler, a freelance journalist, and Steve Bartorelli, a retired Detective Chief Inspector who is of Italian descent.

Death in the High City, believed to be the first crime novel in which the beautiful and historic city of Bergamo provides the backdrop, is available from Amazon in paperback and as an e-book.

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